Harry Potter and the Crown of Kings
by Zechs M
Summary: Harry Potter in his most exciting year yet! He gets his owl results and returns to Hogwarts for his sixth year of school. CH2 up, R&R.
1. OWLs

Harry lay on his bed looking up at the ceiling. The Dursleys were not nearly as bad as they had been the previous summer and he was relaxing as it was a hot day. Harry looked out of the window to see whether Hedwig had returned. He had sent her a letter just two days ago and he was going to have to write another one tomorrow. Most people would find sending mail by way of owl very odd. But Harry was not like most people. Harry was, in every aspect of the word, a wizard. Harry lived in a completely different world than that of muggles, or non-magic wielding people. It was because of Harry's wizarding talents that the Dursley's were usually very mean to him; they didn't want the neighbors to know that they were harboring one of "his kind" inside their house. This summer, however, was much better than the last. Harry's fellow wizards from the Order of the Phoenix had threatened the Dursley's with visitation if they mistreated him in any way or banned him from writing back to any of "his kind". Normally a response would arrive within a day, but not even Hedwig came back. He was beginning to worry. The Ministry of Magic had already stopped intercepting mail after the incident in his forth year as he had proven Voldemorts existence with the help of his friends. The Dursely's noticed the lack of owls and took advantage of it immediately. It was pretty bold of them to assign chores for him so quickly, but his worry had kept him occupied more.  
  
And so the Dursleys had contented themselves with locking Harry in his room, which suited him perfectly, as it meant he could get on with his homework in peace. It was one in the morning, and Harry had just finished a sixteen-inch essay for Professor Snape, when Hedwig returned with a letter in an official-looking envelope. Harry's heart pounded as he looked at it. He remembered what he had heard the previous month... his OWL results would be sent to him in July... He gingerly took the letter, held it in front of him for a silent minute, staring at it, and then slit it open. But before he could read the results of his O.W.L, Uncle Vernon had barged into the room, looking drowsy yet angry and annoyed. Harry was sitting in a chair, still holding the letter.  
  
"What in the ruddy hell is this?" Uncle Vernon barked, rubbing his eyes.  
  
"Uh..." Harry struggled to find words, "...reading letters?" He smiled weakly.  
  
"Go to sleep, boy!" Vernon growled, shutting the door behind him. Harry sighed, acknowledging the fact that it could've been worse (And it would've been worse, weren't it for Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks and Mad-Eye Moody threatening the Dudleys). Instead of continuing reading the letter, however, he just sunk himself into bed, and fell asleep. It seemed like he had just fallen asleep when he woke up with a start. Harry checked his bedside clock. Two A.M. His stomach sank. He was covered in a cold sweat, and his scar was stinging like mad. He tried to think about what had caused him to wake up at such a wee hour in the morning, and it suddenly hit him: He remembered a dream that he had. Was it really a dream? It seemed so real.... It began....  
  
He was walking down the halls of Hogwarts, muttering something he could not understand. He was walking along a corridor, jaunt fashion. A grin spreading across his face. As he reached for a luminous looking door at the end of the hall, a sleek hand shoved the door open. And when Harry looked up, the person was gone, and he was awake. He tried to fall asleep again, but sleep would not carry him off. Wondering what this was, a lump formed in his throat. Sweat pounding down his face, he tried to think. What should he do. He attempted a weak form of Occlumency, then letting sleep take him again, dropped down on his covers again. He awoke hours later, yet there was a grin on his face this time. He had a dream... it was about Sirius, it was trying to tell him something. His heart drummed fast. Maybe, just maybe, his godfather wasn't dead after all.  
  
Harry sat upright in his bed. Was it possible Sirius wasn't dead? He had not come from behind the veil, he had not turned into a ghost, and Harry could not contact him through that two-sided mirror Sirius had given him... was it possible that there was a way for Sirius to still be alive?  
  
Harry sunk back onto his bed. The professional looking letter caught his eye, sitting innocently on his bedside table. Harry was by this time wide awake, and probably would not fall back asleep for a while anyway, so he carefully picked up the Hogwarts stamp-sealed letter and once again took out the contents. Unfolding the tan slip of parchment, he anxiously began to read:  
  
"Dear Harry Potter,  
  
This letter, as you probably know, contains the results of your O.W.L. tests that you took last June in your fifth year of attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Your grades are-"   
  
/b Harry bolted out of his bed and instinctively ran to the window to find the source of the noise. It sounded much like the crack he had heard last summer when he was hiding in the flower bed, but who could have possibly apparated here, now, again? But the shuffling of feet in the hallway alerted him to a much greater problem: the noise had awoken the Dursleys. Uncle Vernon slammed the door wide open.   
  
"What in ruddy hell do you think your doing boy!" He yelled.  
  
"I-t was-n't me, I swear." Harry said, forcing out the words slowly. Uncle Vernon grunted and left the room, once again slamming the door shut. Harry looked out the window, immediately happy he did. It was Lupin. He smiled and waved. Harry looked around, then opened his window. Lupin, apparated again and appeared in Harry's room. Harry locked the door and shut the window clumsily. Lupin looked around then spoke.   
  
"So Harry, I just had to ask..." Harry took a notice of what Lupin was wearing. He had on sleep pants with wands floating in randomly placed spots. He had a big t-shirt on that said: "Got Wands?" in milky white handwriting. Lupin continued. "Did you have that dream, the one about Sirius just now?" He asked.  
  
"Yes, yes," Harry said excitedly. "What did it mean?"  
  
Lupin's reply came darkly "I don't know."   
  
Footsteps were heard on the stairs, Harry quickly nodded towards Lupin and the wizard disapparated, leaving behind no trace. Harry looked down at his letter as Uncle Vernon entered. Harry quickly dove into his bed and pretended to be asleep as his overlarge uncle Vernon came stumbling down the hall. He opened Harry's door and peered through and saw what appeared to be a sleeping Harry. He stumbled off mumbling something about "stupid neighbors" and then Harry heard the door close. He sat bolt-upright and quickly peered through the window where he saw nothing. He wondered who it could have been as he lay back down hoping to see someone soon that had any better contacts with the wizarding world other than the Daily Prophet.  
  
The moment Uncle Vernon was out of the room, Harry immediately turned on the light. He pulled out the letter, anxious to see his grades. They were better than he had ever imagined:  
  
Astonomy: Acceptable  
  
Care of Magical Creatures: Exceeds Expectations  
  
Charms: Exceeds Expectations  
  
Defense Against the Dark Arts: Outstanding  
  
Divination: Dreadful  
  
History of Magic: Poor  
  
Potions: Outstanding  
  
Transfiguration: Exceeds Expectations  
  
Harry had done it. He had managed the grades that would allow him to take NEWT level potions, and he would be able to keep trying to become an auror. 


	2. Return to Number 12

When Harry woke up the next morning, it was to find an owl flapping outside his window, clamouring to get in. Yawning, he reached over to the window and opened it. The owl flew excitedly about, dropping the letter heavily on Harry's head. Holding the envelope in front of him, he recognised Hermione's handwriting. He opened it.  
  
Dear Harry, how are you? Did your OWL results arrive yesterday? Ours did; I got nine Outstandings, and Exceeds Expectations in Astronomy, which was a bit disappointing. Ron got Dreadful in Divination (who can blame him?), Acceptable in Potions, Astronomy, and History of Magic, and Exceeds Expectations in the rest. His mother is very pleased and is buying him new robes. Anyway, the main reason I was writing was to invite you to my house. Ron will be here also. We will have time to catch up on things and Lupin has agreed that he will pick us up by broomstick to take us back to Number 12, Grimmauld Place. I really hope you can come.  
  
With Love,  
  
Hermione  
  
Harry grinned from ear to ear. He had never been to Hermione's house before. But then he realized that it would be nearly impossible to leave the Dursleys' unless he wrote to one of the members of the order of the phoenix. Harry dug around in his trunk that he usually took to Hogwarts for a piece of paper. After looking for what seemed like five minutes he realized that he didn't have any.  
  
"Oh no" Harry thought aloud, which he realized was a mistake when he heard the heavy footfalls of his uncle coming up the stairs. Harry barely had time to shut his trunk before Vernon shoved his overly-large head inside the doorframe of Harry's room and, to his horror, spotted the bit of parchment with his O.W.L. exam results hanging out of his trunk.  
  
"What in the ruddy hell is that?" Said Vernon pointing toward Harry's school trunk.  
  
"My school trunk. You know. The big box I use to keep all of the stuff I use when I'm gone for half the year. Much as you don't like me I'm sure you noticed that I leave for a TINY little bit every year." Harry said. His frustration with his uncle was rising. His uncle was always butting in, being nosy. Like his aunt, but lately he's been worse than her.   
  
"Well, I can see that, boy. What are those letters. Have you been using those bloody owls in my house again?" Vernon said raising his tone slightly.  
  
"No, I learned how to use pidgeons now! Of course I've been using owls. How else do you expect me to find out whats going on in my world?"  
  
"You watch you tongue or I'll throw you out of here."  
  
"Oh God, not that. Anything but me getting to leave. Get out of my room, or I'll let my old friends from the train station know you've been horrible to me lately."  
  
"You wouldn't!" Vernon siad, though it was clear he didn't believe his own words. After they stared at each other for a few more minutes, Vernon yelled.  
  
"You don't get lunch today boy!" And he stormed out of the room.   
  
Harry went back to his table, picked up the parchment he couldn't find, and began to write his letter. He started to write Sirius but then stopped and shuddered thinking about how he would never be able to write to Sirius again. So he started over.   
  
"Dear Professor Moody," Harry read aloud  
  
"How are things? I hope they are going good and I hope that you and the Order are progressing in whatever work you are up to right now. I was writing to you because Hermione has invited me to her house, and I would love to go as I have never been there before, but I have no idea of how I am going to manage to leave the Dursleys'. I thought that someone from the Order may be able to help me in finding a way to leave, so I wrote to you. Please write back as soon as you can to tell me if there is anyway I can get to Hermione's.  
  
Signed,  
  
Harry Potter"  
  
He put the letter in an envelope and gave it to Hedwig to deliver. "Try to deliver it fast Hedwig," he said to his snowy owl that he had received as a present from Hagrid the summer before his first year. Hedwig took off and Harry was stuck just having to wait.  
  
The next morning when Harry walked down to breakfast he found that the Dursley had treated Harry to the "invisibility" tactic; where they did not acknowledge that Harry was sitting at their table or rather there at all. Harry was too used to it, as they had only started using it when Harry first became a wizard and, plus, he thought, it's better than having to listen to their usual criticism. Vernon and Petunia's son Dudley was Smelting's junior heavyweight boxing champion, and he had grown a few inches since last year, Harry thought. Dudley was starting to turn into something like his father, as he had broad shoulders, two chins, and little or no neck. Dudley was watching TV stupidly, glancing at Harry as he came down the stairs and not looking at him again. Dudley hated Harry. Still convinced that Umbridge's dementor attack on Harry had been Harry's doing all along, every time he caught Harry's eye in passing he cracked his knuckles threateningly like two other boys Harry knew. Because Harry could use magic it messed with Dudley's and indeed Vernon's idea of a fair fight, which Harry thought was quite unfair if you compared the sizes of the two boys. Harry was quite unabashed of Dudley's size, however. The Dursley's would not put it past Harry to curse them if they made him too angry, even though all of them knew that Harry was not allowed to do magic outside of school.  
  
While Harry was eating he tried to catch pieces of the news. iIf there has been an attack on muggles,/i thought Harry, iI would know./i Harry still had his subscription to the Daily Prophet, but he didn't think that they would report muggle deaths or disappearings. Harry knew that Voldemort and his Death Eaters would be less subtle than they were last year, where he had foiled their plans to retrieve the prophecy concerning Lord Voldemort and himself. Now, however, Voldemort was out in the open with nothing to lose.  
  
But the Dursleys' quiet breakfast that morning was disturbed by a knock on the door. Vernon, grunting loudly, went to answer it.  
  
"Yes?" he said. A shrill voice answered, loudly enough for every word to be clearly heard by those in the kitchen.  
  
"Good morning, Mr Dursley. I'm Sergeant Kenworthy of the local police. Does a Mr Harry Potter live here?"  
  
"HARRY!" roared Vernon. "HERE! NOW!" Harry threw down his fork and rushed to the door. He recognised Kenworthy at once, in spite of the fact that her hairstyle had changed totally since he had last seen her, when her name had been Tonks, and she had been a member of the Order of the Phoenix.  
  
"May I have a word outside with Mr. Potter?" Tonks asked. Without waiting for an answer she dragged him out the door, she took him around the back, and using magic, levitated him into the air. He was by his window when Tonks said "Get your stuff, Harry." Harry opened the window and crawled in. He picked up his stuff as Hedwig returned. He put her in her cage and took the letter out of her mouth. He floated back down and Tonks grabbed him by the shoulders and took a letter out of her pocket. She gave the letter to Harry. "Tell Hedwig to give this to the Dursleys." Harry did as told and a minute later, Hedwig returned. Harry grabbed all of his possessions as Tonks said, and a second later, felt a whooshing sound as he flew through the air and landed inside a dark kitchen. There was a straggled man at the table, his black hair flowing smoothly. He turned around to face Harry, and Harry didn't need to know twice, he ran forward and hugged this man, Sirius was home. 


End file.
